0Shares

This edition of our 3D printing news digest Sliced follows the latest developments from Formnext 2018; the acceleration of industrial metal additive manufacturing; new post-processing solutions; and the release of the latest AlphaEDGE 4D shoe from Adidas and Carbon.

All this and more from Nanoscribe, Additive Industries, Callaghan Innovation, Polymaker, Shanghai Construction Group and others.

Innovations from Formnext

Last week at Formnext 2018, LSS Laser Sinter Service GmbH introduced its new RAPTOR 84X-Q 3D printer. This printer maintains a large build volume of 800 x 400 x 480 mm and is said to be the first-ever polymer laser sintering platform with a quad laser/scanner system.

The RAPTOR 22X-S has also been released for more entry-level users, and has a compact build area of 250 x 250 x 300 mm. The new 3D printers aim to accelerate the industrial adoption of laser-based powder bed fusion technology for polymers.

CIPRES, a German manufacturer of laser sintering prototypes, has introduced an industrial dyeing machine for 3D printed polymer parts called the eCOLOR Type 1/350/1.

Furthermore, American multinational automaker Ford has partnered with Trinckle, a Berlin-based 3D printing service provider, to automate the design process for its production tools.

Lars Bognar, an engineer with Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Europe, comments, “Additive manufacturing itself is no longer the dominating cost factor limiting the scalability of the application. Up to 50% of total costs per tool are caused by the manual design, which is the new bottleneck,”

“For each new line and each special edition, these tools must be specifically designed to position the badges with exact accuracy.”

Jig configuration solution for a 3D printed part. Photo via Trinckle.

A full-scale 3D printed bridge

Polymaker and Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) are constructing a large plastic bridge measuring 15 meters in length and weighing 5,800kg. SCG is using its 3D printer with a build chamber 24 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 1.5 meters high, with a planned expansion to 3 meters high. Polymaker is supplying ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) for the bridge, a material chosen due to its weather and chemical resistance, thermal stability, and toughness.

Air Liquide, a French multinational chemical and engineering company, has reinforced its partnership with with Additive Industries, the manufacturer of the MetalFab1 3D printer. As a result of this formal partnership, Air Liquide will provide Additive Industries with its supply and storage solutions for shielding gasses within the build chamber. Also this month,Additive Industries reaffirmed its long-term partnership with international car manufacturer Volkswagen.

“We are proud to have played an important role in this initiative to empower employers nationwide to develop and customize AM apprenticeships to create a much needed, highly skilled additive workforce,” said Rob Gorham, Executive Director of America Makes.

Leading consulting firm Deloitte has ranked Markforged, the Massachusetts-based 3D printer manufacturer of the Metal X, at number 10 on its 2018 North America Technology Fast 500 list. This list provides an annual ranking of the fastest-growing North American companies in technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and energy tech sectors.

Nanoscribe, a German company specializing in 3D printing at the micrometer scale, has been selected as the first place winner of the biennial Baden-Württemberg State Prize for Young Companies. Worth €40,000, this award is given to companies demonstrating economic success and making an exemplary contribution to a sustainable society through entrepreneurial action.

The School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI has announced that Praxair Surface Technologies, a supplier of metal powders for additive manufacturing, has awarded a TruForm AMbition grant to a project led by Dr. Jing Zhang, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, IUPUI. This project aims to support the growth of metal additive manufacturing in the academic community, targeting North American universities.

New Zealand’s Callaghan Innovation has introduced Laminated Resin Printing (LRP) – a new 3D printing technology for rapid prototyping of high-resolution microscale structures. Co-inventor Andrea Bubendorfer said, “Microfabrication – the production of very small high-value devices – is an export industry for New Zealand. Until now, however, making these miniature structures has been slow and expensive.”

“By comparison, 3D printing has transformed how we make things, but it can’t operate on the small scale needed for microfabrication. And by small, we’re talking 5 microns. For context, a human hair is about 100 microns.”

The project has attracted a further $684,000 of pre-seed funding from public research organization KiwiNet.